Outwardly and inwardly. The utter stillness inside her seemed a good thing to her, a welcome thing, and Shannon had no way of knowing it was like the hushed silence before an earthquake. She had no way of knowing, unaccustomed as she was to emotional highs and lows, that her kind of composure was a terribly fragile layer of calm over emotions that were seething. And the shock, when it came, was so sudden that she could only respond with equal suddenness, completely out of instinct. She was standing on the bottom step going down into the softly lit living area, looking at Derek as he stood to stretch cramped muscles and frowned down at the diagram and notes littering the coffee table. Shannon opened her mouth to ask some unformed question, and that was when they both heard the sharp, echoing report from outside, chillingly loud and stark in the silence of the night. Derek turned toward her instantly, but even then he barely had time to realize she had moved before she was in his arms, shaking violently.
